Several weeks ago a Duluth Fox news director caused quite a stir when he put on Facebook a derogatory, racist remark about somebody that was near his house. I don't remember if he resigned or was fired. He then said that his great-grandfather's great-grandfather was Indian or some such chain, and he claims he is Indian too. He even was admitted into an Indian journalists' group.
Come on! Just because you had an ancestor of a certain origin doesn't make you one of the group the ancestor belonged to. Many people even one generation removed from some place have none of the language or culture of where their parents came from.
My surname is Irish, but I can find no ancestor that lived in Ireland. The best I can tell is that my great-great-great grandfather, Vincent Magree, was probably born in Maryland. I am assuming that Magree is Irish because several Australians named Magree trace their ancestry back to Kilkenny.
I have great-grandparents who were born in England and Germany. I consider myself neither English or German. When I was in England and Ireland, I was called a Yank. When I was in Germany, I was called Amerikaner. Some of my ancestors born in what was then Germany may have had Polish ancestors. I do not consider myself Polish.
I consider myself an American because I was born in the U.S., had almost all of my education in the U.S., and except for some trips to Canada, never went outside the U.S. until I was 30.
So, if some ancestor long, long ago was from a certain group and some of that person's descendants claim they belong to that group, shouldn't we consider President Barack Obama a white man. His mother was a white American and a long list of her ancestors were white. Given the reasoning for people to claim Indian inheritance, then we can also say that Obama is white.
We're born here; we're Americans. End of story.
